Indian police arrest suspect in plot to kill Bangladesh PM

Indian security personnel escort a veiled woman, center, who is suspected of being involved in a plot to assassinate Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, to a court in the Indian city of Guwahati on Saturday.

GUWAHATI: Indian police have arrested a 36-year-old woman suspected of being involved in a plot to assassinate the prime minister of Bangladesh and carry out a coup, police said on Saturday.

The arrest comes days after Indian security officials said they had uncovered a plot by members of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, accused of carrying out scores of attacks in Bangladesh, targeting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The group also planned to assassinate the country’s main opposition leader, Khaleda Zia, Indian officials said. Hasina and Zia have dominated Bangladeshi politics for more than a decade.

Pallab Bhattacharjee, additional director general of police in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, said the woman had been also charged with collecting arms with an intention of waging war against India.

“She has been arrested by the special operations unit of the Assam Police and will be produced in court today,” he said.

The alleged assassination conspiracy was discovered after two members of the outlawed group were killed in an explosion while building homemade bombs at a house in West Bengal in eastern India last month.

Indian police say the militants were Bangladeshis and were using India as a safe haven to plan the attacks.

Breakthrough in Burdwan blast

In a major breakthrough, West Bengal police arrested the main accused in Burdwan blast, Sajid, a Bangladeshi national and chief commander of terror group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

With the arrest of Sajid, on whose head the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had announced a cash reward 1 million rupees, the exact plan of the terror group is likely to come to fore.

Sajid was arrested by West Bengal Police a couple of days back, official sources said on Saturday but refused to immediately divulge the exact location and circumstances leading to his arrest.

Sajid had been extensively questioned by the police and sleuths of central agencies about the functioning of JMB and its plans within the country and in Bangladesh.

Police exhume body

Police say a 75-year-old Australian woman missing for two months in southern India has been killed and three men are facing charges.

Toni Anne Ludgate was a devotee of the Hindu guru Sathya Sai Baba and a regular visitor to his headquarters in Andhra Pradesh state.

Police Inspector B. Venugopal says her body was exhumed Saturday and handed over to her family.

He says Ludgate was killed by a guard of the apartment building where she was living. The guard and two of his friends have been arrested.

Ludgate had lived in the Sydney suburb of Pyrmont and came to India in July. She had been missing since August.

Sai Baba, who died in April 2011, was considered a saint by his devotees. They continue to visit his ashram.